A group that advocates for more funding for lung cancer research has chastised California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for linking lung cancer to smoking during the state’s “Lung Cancer Awareness Month.”

Wha?

Yes, you read correctly. Michael Siegel, a credentialled public health researcher, speculates that the constant linking of smoking to lung cancer, coupled with efforts to vilify smokers, has stigmatized lung cancer patients. The ol’ “smokers deserve what they get” way of thinking. That stigmatization means foundations and government agencies are less likely to open the checkbooks for lung cancer research. So lung cancer activists are splintering off from anti-tobacco activists, having come to the conclusion that making pariahs of smokers doesn’t do much for the people actually suffering from the disease.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 10th, 2006 at 9:48 am by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.